Pear
by Florida's Firefly
Summary: Oneshot. Eri the scarlet ibis was Master Oogway's student alongside Baojia the lynx and Koto the red panda. So what was it that made her go from a common vagrant thief with no family to a guardian of the Valley?


_This is really just a writing exercise that I had written for my friends at my art site, but I like how it turned out. :) It introduces a couple new characters of mine, specifically Oogway's students during Shifu's cubhood. If you're intrigued to get a full bio on any of these characters, go to my profile page and click "Homepage" to go to my art site._

_Enjoy!_

oOoOo

She had come to this "Valley of Peace" to _escape _her persecutors. But it seemed that, at every turn, she was merely making new enemies. Nobody wanted a thing to do with a vagrant woman aimlessly wandering the streets with a dwindling sense of ethics.

A week ago, she would've never approved of stealing… But – now that she thought on it – a week ago, she wouldn't have had to. So why was stealing such a bothersome concept to her now? Why did she even _care_ if she stole something? It was what had gotten her into this mess in the first place…

Eri couldn't help eyeing the freshly picked pears in the merchant's cart in the near distance. It had been three days since she had last had anything of a meal or a clean drink of water. As a result, her voice had nearly entirely escaped her. Her normally ruby-red plumage was now bordering an ugly, rusty brown and she looked like she had been living under a pile of dirt. Not a far cry from reality, actually.

All too soon, the weakness of her stomach overcame what was left of her morals and she silently advanced on the sales wagon. The vendor – a grizzly old ram – had his back turned on her, barking to any passerby on the street. If she could just be quick enough…

With as much stealth as she could manage, she quietly stretched her long neck forward and deftly picked up the closest pear she could see, not daring to take her eyes off of the vendor for a moment.

"What do you think you're doing??" a voice suddenly boomed, startling her into swinging around and accidentally striking the rest of the pile with a flapping wing. The vendor spun around abruptly and instantly saw the pear in her beak.

"_Thief!!_" It reached Eri's ear before she could even grasp what had happened. She knew the penalty for stealing in her distant hometown, and she wasn't sticking around to find out if it was the same here. Turning tail, she raised her wings and took off for the sky.

She then squawked and almost dropped her pear when she suddenly felt an iron hard lash out and grab her by the foot, yanking her to a halt. It was a Siberian lynx with leering green eyes that bitterly construed the fear etched across her face.

It was this brief moment that cost her nearly everything. Before she could move another muscle, the lynx had seized her by the top of her wing with one paw and had clenched the other around her beak. A successful ploy to trap her on the spot. Eri beat her free wing furiously, trying to pull away from the large cat that kept his feet planted on the ground and held her there with amazing strength.

The voice that had ratted her out in the first place belonged to a young, blue-eyed red panda dressed in a green robe who now wielded his bo staff and pointed it at her beak.

"Drop it now, _nyu tzey_," he threatened.

Eri's panic quickly gave way to fury towards these cocky, too-big-for-their-britches Jade Palace brats. She narrowed her eyes at the lynx still holding her beak for a moment. Then, faster than the village onlookers could blink, she rapidly swung her free wing up and slapped it as hard as she physically could across his face. Quickly following this with a violent twist of her body, she broke free from the lynx's grip and darted skyward again.

Now the _red panda _had her by the leg! Eri's patience had reached its breaking point. All she could think of now were the similar antics of the backstabbers that had stolen her babies from her. She swung her head around with a furious cry, set to peck him in the head if she had to. The moment she had turned, however, the red panda was bringing his staff down rapidly for her.

She suddenly felt the bamboo smack her hard on the head, making her drop the fruit that had suddenly become her most valuable possession besides her own life. She twisted her body around again and plowed a kick straight into the red panda's throat, slamming him back into the stomach of the lynx.

Eri hightailed it out of the street just as fast as she could, flapping her exhausted way into a distant alley where she was sure those long arms of the law couldn't find her. Her landing was ungraceful, a collapsing flurry of red that rendered her as a miserable heap in the dirt. She slowly staggered back onto her feet.

She was right back where she had started, with nothing more than an obliterated ego and a torn tunic on her back when she had set out to at least satisfy her empty stomach for a few hours. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, so they say…

She felt tears start to sting at her honey-colored eyes and she had just started to limp down the alley when she heard another voice behind her, aged and senescent.

"My lady,"

She spun around and put her wings up, set to take off at the slightest movement from the stranger. She couldn't see much else of her visitor but his silhouette. He was fairly large and held a long, wooden staff in one clawed hand. But, once her eyes had cleared of the blur of her tears and adjusted to the light, she made him out to be a very old tortoise. He was holding something in his other hand, which he held out to her.

The pear. He was holding the pear out before him. She looked him in the eyes. She didn't see anger or judgment or anything of the like. Only kindness and compassion. She quickly looked back to the ground, ashamed to even make eye contact.

"Not to worry," he said gently. "It's been paid for."

She stared at the fruit for a moment. Then, the very next thing she knew, she had grabbed it in one foot and was voraciously biting off the soft green flesh like nobody's business. She didn't care if the juice was dribbling down her beak – she had long since given up trying to act ladylike.

She hardly paid any more attention to the old tortoise that watched her eat with a solemn and worried look on his face. The pace at which she was eating was probably the cause. Within two minutes, the pear core unceremoniously dropped into the dirt, pecked clean.

She realized too late that eating so fiercely after nearly starving to death was a bad move that abruptly stung her in a state of physical shock. She stood with her head lowered, her legs shaking slightly, and her bangs fallen messily over her eyes. She didn't have to look to know – he hadn't left yet. Part of her wanted him to walk away, to not let him or anyone else see her in such a state. The better half of her, however, longed for him to stay, this one kind face she had known in what seemed like forever.

"What is your name?" His voice sudden broke the static silence.

She half expected that she was going to be sick on the spot, between both the shock of eating too fast and the fact that this complete stranger wanted to know her name. She wondered if her name was infamous yet… Just how many people already knew she was a thief and a liar. And heaven knew that with the state she was in, she looked like the wretched, sullied vagabond that she was.

But when she finally opened her mouth, she didn't expect what came out.

"…Eri," she croaked.


End file.
